Remote Warfare

 Author: Dr. Michael Zimmer

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Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) is at the highest importance to operate Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) military missions. UAS have found much success when operating in Afghanistan and Iraq. The functionalities and capabilities have driven up UAS demand and usage expanding operations across the globe. Although UAS parameters are limited to manned systems, UAS reflects a lower risk and cost when performing missions. However, there are great benefits with UAS usage, these benefits can be counter argued with negative pilot effects. These effects are creating a harmful setting on future military pilots. It is because o the minimal human oversight that has formed health skepticism and hesitation on the amount of operations performed. Within this paper, the researcher will discuss on human factors, ethical and moral issues involved in the use of UAS in remote warfare. In addition, this paper while note on future outlook to support the negative dilemma that UAS pilots face.   

Human Factors

Although full UAS automation still remains in development, human factors incorporation will act as a system subset. As oppose to a function, human factors within UAS automation will provide alert measures. These human factors incorporation is established around perception, decision, and actions performed from past events. By leveling a benchmark measure, automation can operate with an understanding of caution. For example, Traffic Collision Alerting Systems aids as an automation tool with human factor elements programed while easing aircraft risk. Many systems within UAS remote warfare are linked to autonomy. Another example surrounds the use of autopilot as operators do not physically hold control of the flight management system movement. Human Factors benchmarks and best practice have been built into such systems to adjust operation levels. According to Parasuraman and Wickens (2008), autonomy systems are design to adjust indirectly to establish human operating needs. Systems within UAS remote warfare do not make lethal decisions because of system programming is not perfect. Automation flaws typically surround situation awareness, trust, overreliance, and complacency (NATO, 2007).

Ethical and Moral Issues

Ethics and moral are often interchangeably, yet a distinction for autonomous machines. Ethics is termed around philosophical depiction on morality. Moral is defined on behaviors and beliefs surround right from wrong (Gros, Tessier, & Pichevin, 2012). Within UAS remote warfare, ethics and moral issues is relevant when the system possesses the level of autonomy to make decisions. Human and machines together allow systems to perform binary actions. The will of automation is only at the highest automation level as UAS remote warfare and is currently not at; thus, lethal decision is at the ethical and moral decision of humans as systems are develop to accomplish a goal, not choose the goal. Developing a UAS that is capable of moral behavior is desirable, yet creating one with ethical will is not. 

Outlook

As advances occur, full autonomy within UAS will one day come. Developments raises ethical questions on the implementations of moral when considering safety and lethal action. Because of ethical and moral dilemmas, autonomous implementation within UAS will be delayed. Human factors will be involved in future UAS design to offer control measures in UAS remote warfare use case. As past incidents and accidents aids as a benchmark to form UAS remote warfare best practices, issues that surround lethal UAS are unknown. Because of this uncertainly research and development must achieve a level of trust will military leaders before a full autonomous UAS is put into the sky. Within this paper, the researcher discussed on human factors, ethical and moral issues involved in the use of UAS in remote warfare.

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References

Kurkcu, C., Erhan, H. & Umut, S. Human Factors Concerning Unmanned Aircraft Systems in Future Operations. J Intell Robot Syst 65, 63–72 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-011-9592-2

Gros, F., Tessier, C., & Pichevin, T. (2012) Ethics and authority sharing for autonomous armed robots. Autonomous Agents (RDA2) 2012, 7.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Research and Technology Organization. Human Factors and Medicine Panel. (2007). Uninhabited military vehicles (UMVs): Human factors issues in augmenting the force. ( No. TR-HFM-078;78.;). Neuilly-sur-Seine Cedex, France: North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Research and Technology Organization. 

Parasuraman, R., & Wickens, C. D. (2008). Humans: Still vital after all these years of automation. Human Factors, 50(3), 511-520. doi:10.1518/001872008X312198


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